Friday, August 26, 2016

Filed under "You can't go home again" not even on Google Earth.

From time to time I have a look at old neighborhoods I once lived in on Google Maps utility Google Earth. It's a telling bit of nostalgia. Telling because, as always, nothing stays the same. The old gas station where I used to push Dad's lawnmower with a quarter in my pocket to buy gas (a gallon was 35 cents, the mower took less than 1 gallon.)

Monday, August 22, 2016

Some thoughts on A J Raffles, Bunny Manders and A.C. Doyle.

Recently, I've been reading some old Victorian books

most recently, the AJ Raffles stories by E.W. Hornung. Hornung was Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's cousin, and he wrote the Raffles stories contemporary to Doyle, even dedicating his first novel The Amateur Cracksman "To ACD, A Form of Flattery."

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Donald Trump wants to win, he just isn't able to.

Recently, filmmaker Michael Moore wrote an opinion piece in which he details how Donald Trump never really wanted to be President, which is why he's tanking it now. It's a good piece, and you should read it if you haven't. (here) .  Moore puts a lot of thought into his work, and he makes a good case for Trump not really wanting to be President of the United States. (Resist my friends the impulse to write POTUS as if you were some secret service agent.)
But, with respect to Mr Moore, I have to disagree in some respects. I have spent a bit of time studying Mr Trump's doings, and I have to say this : Trump fails more than he succeeds, simply because his personality failings -- grandiosity, vanity, greed, short-tempered-ness and his inability to consider the long term outcomes of his actions -- combine with a carefully concealed lack of native intellect and stunning ignorance for someone in his position lead him to overvalue his worth, overestimate his ability and grossly underestimate his opponents. Unlike Mr Moore, I don't believe Trump didn't see it coming because he overlooked a bet, I think Trump was simply incapable of seeing himself losing. I believe Trump thought he would make a big splash, beat out all the other contenders for the GOP nomination, and then carry the general election on force of personality and name recognition alone -- that people would vote for him despite his glaring lack of ability.  Look back at Trump's history. You'll see his back trail is littered with failed business ventures, outraged contractors and other goods and services providers who were either never paid or grossly underpaid, and even bankruptcies. It extends to his personal life too -- a number of failed marriages, smoothed over personal lawsuits and other debacles that show a distinct lack of character.
All these failures can be laid at Trump's door. So many so that the question of his being a successful businessman must be answered in the negative. So, while Trump may have wanted to be President of the United States, it is a thing he can aspire to but simply hasn't got what's needed to take it. Moreover, I think that deep down Trump is aware of his failing in this regard and is -- perhaps subconsciously -- setting himself up to fail in such a manner as he could then blame his failure on someone else. It won't really matter if his blame game seems credible to others, it just has to be something that fits into his false-reality bubble.

Post Script : 

Well, I got it wrong. Apparently character doesn't matter anymore. Trump got elected on an Electoral College vote of 306 to Clinton's 232. Clinton won the popular vote by some 3 million-odd votes. Trump carried the EC by some 80k votes spread through Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. According to Michael Moore Trump took Michigan by 2 votes per precinct.  Consider this most carefully. Donald J Trump took the election by the margin of the usual crowd at an NFL Football game. Now do not tell me your vote doesn't matter. 

Monday, August 15, 2016

What are we going to do If/when Donald Trump loses ?

What are we going to do If/when Donald Trump loses ? 

Seriously. What can we expect the roughly 20% of the American population who're die-hard Donald Trump fans to do when the Duke of Orange loses ? Right now, there's roughly 20% of the population (about 40% of the republican voters ) who are angry. They've been fed bollocks for so long that the truth looks like falsehoods to them. They've been told by the far right that the Government (all government) is evil and must be done away with. They've been fed the myth that the Confederacy wasn't at all bad, and certainly had nothing to do with slavery, they just wanted time to deal with the slavery issue at their own rate, and most certainly would have gotten around to freeing those slaves sooner or later. (the fact that they had since 1789 to do so and still hadn't by 1860 notwithstanding)
The crowning lie they have been fed is the notion that they too can be billionaires if they'll just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get to work! They get told that government never does anything right or good, that anyone who receives government assistance is a conniver, lazy and a crook. Then they get fed the divisive horse crap that *those people* are a bunch of crooks, liars and (gasp!) potential terrorists. It doesn't matter that *those people* (whoever they might be) are mostly ordinary people who just want to live their lives in peace, they have committed the deadly sin of being different ! They are dark skinned, or have strange customs or speak a different language. But all this is not really important.
  The GOP have promised a return to a mythical good old days for 30 years, and they keep promising that knowing full well that they'll never deliver. After all this time, the people who believed those promises, who bought into those myths, have become frustrated at the lack of such things happening. They were told that a state of affairs would result wherein they had good jobs, *those people* would be put in their place and kept there, and none of those pesky GLBTQ types would bother them. Things would be swell, just like in Leave it To Beaver. Except, they don't seem to realize that Leave It To Beaver was never real. It was a falsehood. The Cleaver house existed only on a studio backlot. So, having had to put up with the foreigner Barack Obama for 8 years, with a woman set to win the office of President of the United States, what are they going to do ? The way Trump's talking, using thinly veiled violent rhetoric and already claiming that his opponent has rigged the elections, what will happen when the say, 50 to 100 or so really angry nutters decide that Hillary Clinton isn't going to be their President, and she isn't going to be anyone's  President. Or what if it's worse than that, and a few thousand decide to take up arms ? Can the Union survive another insurrection ? I confess to being a bit worried. But then, I thought some lunatic fringer might go after President Obama also, and that hasn't happened. Perhaps things will be all right after all.

Privilege ? What Privilege ? 

I read it a lot these days. I'll be perusing some blog or other and reading an article about some issue of importance -- usually to do with civil rights or equal treatment for all  -- and someone will throw down with "Check your privilege, asshole" as if it were some kind of trump card. Personally, as I only rarely comment on blog posts and I don't post anything that would be considered privilege speaking, I don't get such replies often, and usually when I do it's some miscommunication or someone trolling by giving my words the least charitable interpretation. As if I had said "it's a bright sunny day" and someone jumped in with "Are you trying to insult the Albino community!??!!! check your privilege, Asshole!"  (there's always an insult added on. )

Saturday, August 6, 2016

A quick note about fear.

Fear is one of humanity's basic emotions, rooted in the deepest, most ancient part of the brain.
Fear can cause the brain to invoke the atavistic fight or flight reflex, which can cause people to act with adrenaline-boosted strength, reflexes and with rage and unconcern for future consequences.
To crib from the old Jedi line: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side."
Or, if you prefer, the Bene Gesserit recitation on fear :